The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1887-11-04

hCuiN NV NC pOoolDAS; 90 lOhS3 a. ~ NOh-
tinued to be temperance town.
Mr.. Lindell and his son were both per-
suasive takers, and knew who it would
be best to first talk to on the subject.
1t was not long before a fine building
was erected on a corner of one Of the farms
nearest to the depot, the lower floor of
which was furnished with all the elegan-
cies 20 which any saloon is supposed to
have wheE it starts out to be heightened
affair of it's kind. The upper floor was
also nicely furnished, and held the family
of the man who was hired to stand behind
the counter and do the work which neither
Mr.. Lindell or his son would do for them
selves-not just at present.
The saloon prospered. and Easton soon
rose to the dignity of county seat. A court
house and jail were built at a convent
ent distance from the saloon, and one Of
Mr.. Lindel's farms bid fair to be in de-
mand as city lots and sell at a good price.
The money was spent in sending his second
son away to college, where the father
hoped he would forget the bad habit
which he was forming in the elegant
saloon, where he spent so much of his
time.
will say, right here, that it was
poorer Investment than the farm had been.
The father had forgotten how easily young
men can get into habits from which they
do not easily free themselves, and failed to
look far enough ahead to know that they
would not be likely to learn lessons in
morality among strangers which were very
much superior to those taught at home.
1t took every cent of money which the
farm brought to take him through college
and pay the disgraceful debts he contract
ed while there, and when he was home
again he rapidly sank to the position
which any one of foresight could have pre-
dicted he would hold, and which is Occur
pied by thousands of such young men all
over the country. He was very poor in
vestment and SO we will leave him.
The younger Mrs Lindell was one of
the devoted kind of wives whom it does
one good to see. She believed implicitly
in her husband, and the promise she made
to love, honor and obey him was not given to
be easily broken. Anyone would not find
it an easy task to come to her with stories
of her husbands doings, unless they were
stories entirely in his favor.
Mr.. Lindell was aware of that trait in
his wife's character, and trusted to it to
keep her in ignorance of the real state of
his feelings regarding the temperance ques-
ton, and of the fact that he owned share
in the saloon which was doing such
flourishng business.
No one knows when first she had her
suspicious aroused, nor the means she
took to verify them, nor how she felt on
the subject when at last she found that her
husband was unworthy of the love and adj
miration which she had bestowed on him
so freely.
She ceased going to church, was no
longer seen in the society where she had
always been welcomed as leader, kept
strictly within the walls of her pretty
home, and was very soon forgotten, almost
as entirely as she could have been, had she
been dead.
She saw no one but the haif-witted fell
low who was employed in sweeping and
busting the saloon, in helping lead out
those who were too drunk to be pleasant
within doors, and in othsr mental but
necessary work which is always to be done
in well-kept saloon.
He boarded with the family who lived
overhead, so as to be on hand when need
ed. and, when unobserved, he used often
to Slip away for few minutes, hoping to
get glimpse Of young Mrs. Lindell, who
had once been very good to him when sick,
and whom he adored in consequence. He
had Just enough of intellect, or perhaps it
was instinct that told him that after he
had taken up his present occupation he
was no longer fit for lady to associate
with. He couldn't quite make up his
mind not to see Mrs. Lindell any more, so
he compromised by going so secretly that
the world was none the wiser, and only
the lady herself knew of his stolen calls,
and she, plying him, humored his ca
price.
One morning, the Eastonites were de-
lighted to see an elegant, new gilt-lettered
sign nailed clear across the front of the
saloon. 1t was so attractive in appearance
that the village newspaper mentioned
it three times in its local columns and
wished there were more enterprising peo-
pie in town.
A few days later, and it had different
sort OF sensation to report, which, how
ever, was put in three lines. 1t needed no
more, however, for it was already the talk
of the town.
During the night, strip of white cloth
had been stretched over the sign, and on
the cloth was painted two pictures. One
was man with a glass in his hand.
drinking before the bar of the elegant
saloon. The other was Of woman thinly
clad. with a half-starved baby in her arms.
The pictures were faulty in execution per-
haps, and too high colored to suit the cul-
tivated taste of the artistic, but they were
so plain as to be easily seen at considera-
BILE distance, and so true to life that they
served to preach very impressive temper